Graduating in a week and I'm completely lost

transistor

transistor

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Sep 30, 2007
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So, I'm 27 years old and I'm just about to finish up a master's degree in engineering. I'm really having trouble deciding what to do next...

The two biggest issues are deciding if I should look for a job and where to live. After undergrad, I worked for 2 years and hated every minute of it. I hated waking up early, having to pretend like I was working hard, having incompetent coworkers, and feeling exhausted in the evenings. I ended up applying to grad school just to get a break from it. Shortly after I was accepted, I (and the entire office) got laid off, so I had about 6 months to try my hand at internet marketing. I was putting in 60 hour weeks and by the time school started, I was making more than I was as an engineer. A few months into school, it really took off and I was making 6 times what I was making as an engineer.

So while my classmates all looked for internships in the summer, I decided to keep doing what I was doing. It ended up being a pretty depressing summer. Not because of the business, but because of the isolation. I'd get into a rut of waking up and going to bed an hour or two later every day. Feeling like I was the only one awake at night made me pretty lonely. But even if I was awake at normal hours, I still had no one to talk to. From the outside, it probably seems like an easy problem to correct, but I felt pretty helpless during that time. That's the main reason why I feel like I should get a job-- just to get a normal schedule and some human interaction. I also feel like if I don't I'll be wasting my education and letting down my professors and classmates.

The other issue isn't quite as serious. It's just choosing where to live. Pretty much every city where I'd like to live is notorious for being a sausagefest... Denver, Austin, Las Vegas, San Diego, Phoenix, Seattle, etc. Using male/female ratios as a factor in choosing where to live probably isn't the smartest idea, but I've been living in Silicon Valley for the past couple years and I've seen the consequence of having relatively few females. I'm not getting any younger and could use all the help I can get. Anyone live in these areas? Is it really as bad as people make it out to be? Should I give New England a shot?

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. :thumbsup:
 


Seems pretty simple of a solution to me..

You said you hated working for the man, but you miss the interaction and dislike the isolation of working for yourself.

#1. Do not look for another job. If you're successful online working for yourself, you'd be a nut to get a job just for the social interaction; remember, you hate waking up and hate having to pretend to work hard while working with idiot coworkers - that seems like an awful steep price to have to pay just for social interaction.

#2. You don't have to live isolated being self employed. Where you live can really dictate your opportunity for socializing. Choose a city that's full of life and you'll find plenty of friends. You just need structure.. Wake up, work awhile, go to the gym, work more, then your social life can come into place; that's just one way it can work.

Just because you're self employed doesn't mean you can't have structure. And fuck your professors, you still have your skills and your paper should you ever fail at the internet, it's a good backup plan. My wife is an RN but quit to be a stay at home mom, if we ever need extra income or I die or some shit, she can go back to work immediately making good money.
 
Agreed ^^

You don't need to get a job for social interaction. Like you said yourself, at your last job many of your coworkers are incompetent. You might hate everyone you work with and loathe being there.

If you can make a living being self employed, do it. Work from home.

Make friends by finding people with common interests. Join a gym and do group classes. Go to cooking classes. Foreign language night classes. Are you into sports? Yoga classes, running groups, triathlon, masters swimming, etc. are all very social, and good ways to meet women.

Do some of your work on the laptop at the book store or coffee shop.

And look for jobs for fun. Maybe you'll end up finding something you'd actually enjoy - and do it for that reason, because you enjoy it. Do it part time if you want.

You've got lots of options.
 
if you can't add fun, excitment and social life to your affiliate marketing then it will end up being a 9-12 job, yes a fucking 15 hours job. Get a GF, hang out with friends, hit the gym, make friends, watch movies, go cycling or whatver you like, just dont be a lazy ass sitting on that chair. you will start to like the aff marketing more.

Its not just about making money, its should be about enjoying it.
 
Nigga, get up and stop feeling sorry for yourself. Smack drunk club bitches with your big dick, lift the Earth at the gym like a boss, get drunk and high at the bar, go sky diving, gang banging (the sex kind), and hand gliding. Don't survive - live.

** Or you can rent an "open office" where other entrepreneurs work. Don't expect hotties working there, you'll only find fat hindu cows.
 
I've been through a similar conflict, similar timing, etc. I know what you mean about 'wasting' your eduction and letting down your discipline, letting down the people who have inspired you, dealing with incompetence, etc.

I've come to realize that I don't owe anything to my industry or the people who make it up and vice versa. It was my choice to get into it and it's my choice to be out of it for now. If engineering is a real passion and a true vocation, you will return to it or practice it on your own in some way regardless of whether your first experiences with it have made you sour.

You said you worked a couple years, I'm assuming in engineering. If you tried your hand at it and was dissatisfied, why go back to it now, at least in that permutation? Engineering isn't going anywhere and you're still young enough to return to it in five to ten years and make a three decade career out of it.

Maybe by then you'll me more willing to roll with the punches of the profession. Or you'll have started something that allows you to practice your skills in a different way than what you've experienced so far. Or maybe you'll never return to it and you'll just have to think that the time you spent studying and working was a bust after all.

If you end up continuing on with IM then work on self discipline. If this is your biggest professional difficulty on the road to personal success then consider yourself fortunate because it's a personal conflict that you can master. Force yourself into productive schedules. Sign up for synchronized swimming and pilates and basket weaving. Set some fitness goals. Get out of the house and do shit. Meet people. Live a little.

And keep your ear to the floor for a job that sounds good. You're trained and ready for a career any time so build some assets with IM and have fun with life until the right opportunity pops up. If you can live with IM then you can afford to be selective and look for the right opportunity that won't have you disgusted in a few months wishing you'd never got back into the profession you've trained for.

If you're going to come to New England move to Boston. Fun city, lovely ladies.

$.02

edit: what lschmidt said
 
I work for the man but I also do affiliate marketing... why not do both, if possible.

I used to do only AM and I agree it can be very isolating. Luckily I was dating a girl at the time and she kept me busy with other stuff too.
 
Dude, you know how many people would kill to find some significant success after just 6 months in IM? Keep doin' you, get out, exercise, travel and have some fucking fun. Most importantly, keep building your business. It's all gravy, brah.

Reading above, it bothers me that people don't consider IM a "career." Fuck, I consider IM a career. You're building a fucking business, for fucksake. How many people can do this shit? This is entrepreneurship-you don't sleep in this industry. You don't stop thinking. If you stop, you die. It takes me two hours every night to fall asleep because I'm thinking about my next project and how I'm going to bank.

A 9-5 isn't a career- it's a joke.

/troll rant.
 
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Corporate jobs are evil. They consume your mind till you have no mental energy to do AM stuff after work (at least that how it is for me). And if you need to put food on the table, go for mindless jobs like delivery boy.
 
transistor said:
So, I'm 27 years old and I'm just about to finish up a master's degree in engineering. I'm really having trouble deciding what to do next...

-- snip - snip --

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. :thumbsup:
Click to expand...
Shit, man. I think you're just braggin'.

... or you could just check yourself into a monastery for a few weeks. That will give you structure. But 'tain will be lacking.

BTW, having structure in your life and hunting tail are usually mutually exclusive.
 
onlinemoniez said:
Reading above, it bothers me that people don't consider IM a "career." Fuck, I consider IM a career. You're building a fucking business, for fucksake. How many people can do this shit? This is entrepreneurship-you don't sleep in this industry. You don't stop thinking. If you stop, you die. It takes me two hours every night to fall asleep because I'm thinking about my next project and how I'm going to bank.

A 9-5 isn't a career- it's a joke.

/troll rant.
Click to expand...

That's not trolling man I agree. I had the same thought replying to OP. I used the word 'career' because OP has put time and effort into something other than IM, thinking that's where professional life will be spent, monies made, etc.
 
Finishing my Engineering degree as well in a year.
Most of the people in my program are applying for internships for jobs and I dont see any point in doing so since I am making much more with IM than they will pay me as an engineer.
Although its been hard juggling studies and expanding my IM business, Im going to spend at least 2 years after my degree working on my business and maybe join a company that deals with online advertising.

It really depends what you have passion for. If it engineering, go for it. For me I just chose engineering not knowing what else I wanted to do but found my passion in marketing.

Good Luck
 
I forgot the name, but I saw this ad for offices dedicated to solo workers in San Diego. It was fairly cheap too. Basically what you would be looking for...you wouldn't have to listen to any boss, just advice from other geeks.

^Id chose this, hit up the gym afterwards, then go out for some nightlife. Everything is going to change when you find a mate.

Also, girls from the south > city girls. Always. GL
 
Man, you need to read that thread about traveling the world while making teh monies. A guy in your position needs to do that instead of looking like a desperate geek trying to meet some hotties at a yoga class.
 
No one ever got rich working 9-5. You seem to be answering your own question. Are you looking for reassurances? Here's one, take it.
 
amanda11 said:
Nigga, get up and stop feeling sorry for yourself. Smack drunk club bitches with your big dick, lift the Earth at the gym like a boss, get drunk and high at the bar, go sky diving, gang banging (the sex kind), and hand gliding. Don't survive - live.

** Or you can rent an "open office" where other entrepreneurs work. Don't expect hotties working there, you'll only find fat hindu cows.
Click to expand...


^ This is what I was about to say....
 
Find a bunch of other affiliate marketers who are feeling the same way, find a place you'd all like to live, and co-work with them.
 
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